BRONZE "LES FILLES DU PRINTEMPS" BY Hippolyte François MOREAU (1832–1927)

PATINATED BRONZE SCULPTURE "LES FILLES DU PRINTEMPS"
Finely sculpted bronze with beautifully rendered details,
Depicting two young women, elegantly dressed and barefoot,
One seated on a rock, gazing at her companion and holding her arm,
The second standing beside her, holding a bouquet of leaves, with a gentle expression.
Note: the base of this bronze is a rotating socle.
Signed: H. MOREAU on the lower right of the bronze.
A bronze of fine size and weight.

About: Hippolyte François Moreau was a French sculptor celebrated for his bronze statuettes of young women. Born in 1832 in Dijon, France, the son of the renowned sculptor Jean-Baptiste Moreau, he grew up learning his craft in his father's studio. As a young man, Moreau moved to Paris to study under François Jouffroy at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1863, and continued to show his work there until 1914. In both 1878 and 1900, he was awarded medals for his large-scale decorative works — vases and statuettes — shown at the Paris Exposition Universelle. Among his most notable sculptures is his 1880 statue of the French mathematician Alexis Clairaut, which now forms part of one of the façades of the City of Paris. He died in 1927 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, and today the majority of his works are held in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon.